


Gambler's Prize

by Admiral6



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV), Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-28
Updated: 2018-06-09
Packaged: 2018-11-19 23:16:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11323752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Admiral6/pseuds/Admiral6
Summary: An OUAT/Star Wars story, where Emma Swan is a former casino Sabacc dealer from Coruscant and Regina Mihls is the daughter of Corellia's most ruthless crime boss, and together they're trying to make their fortune as transporters on the galactic rim.





	1. Idiot's Array

**Author's Note:**

> A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

_ It is a time of civil war in the galaxy, as the heroic Rebel Alliance clashes with the forces of the evil Galactic Empire in a bid for ultimate power. _

 

_ While on the galactic rim, pirates, smugglers and gangsters contend with local authorities and compete with each other for lesser stakes: wealth, status and, most often, survival. _

 

_ Emma Swan has come to the rim from the Core Worlds to make a name for herself, and a high-stakes card game is about to bring her closer to her goal… _

* * *

 

  
  
  
  
  


It sounded like the opening line to a dirty joke: A Crolute, a Twi’lek, a Rodian and a Human were playing Sabacc in a cantina in Ord Mantell, and the Human was winning.

 

You’d be forgiven for not expecting to laugh. The Crolute, Twi’lek and Rodian didn’t find it funny either. They’d gone into the game expecting the young, blonde Human woman to maybe win a hand or two before they divided up whatever money she was stupid enough to gamble away. After all, the game was her idea, and she was so pretty and eager about it that it would have been a shame not to teach her a lesson about trying to play a man’s game. Two hours later, with the Rodian and Twi’lek cleaned out and the Human - a Coruscant native named Emma Swan - smiling at him over her pile of winnings,  the Crolute - Janko Rhee - scowled at the hand he currently held and tried to figure out if she held another hand that would embarrass him yet again in front of a bar full of hardened pirates and smugglers. He didn’t have long to decide. He didn’t have enough credits left to raise the bid, so he would have to either fold for good or do something drastic.

 

“Well?” Emma Swan said. Big smile, a waggle of the eyebrows, and the smugness of the Human’s attitude made the decision for Janko. He growled and pulled a code cylinder out of a pocket in his vest and tossed it into the pile of credits between him and Emma.

 

“Raise you,” he said. His face was hard to read, but not so hard you couldn’t tell that he was all in. No matter the outcome, this would be the last hand.

 

Emma realized this when she saw the code cylinder. It prompted her to do some mental calculations, then she slid the winnings in front of her back into the pot, then took out a code cylinder of her own and added it. “Call,” she said, still smiling.

 

Janko went back to scowling at his hand. He didn’t know what he was worried about. He had Pure Sabacc. It was probably the best hand he’d ever had playing this game. He’d been on the receiving end of it countless times (including twice in this particular game), but had only held it himself twice in his life. The last time had saved his life. The stakes weren’t that high this time, but almost, The code cylinder was testament to that.

 

So he had Pure Sabacc, a sure winner, right? But he’d had several hands this game that he thought were sure winners, and yet here was this little Human with all the credits.

 

But Pure Sabacc. Only one hand beat that, and he’d never seen anyone, no matter how well they played, get that hand. It was that rare, and this little Human waif couldn’t possibly have it.

 

Janko grunted one last time and laid down the hand. “Pure Sabacc,” he said, gruff voice dripping with cautious optimism.

 

Emma looked down at the cards, nodded at them as if she was impressed, then she sat back, sighed and laid out her cards.

 

The Rodian whistled, the Twi’lek’s leks fluttered and the bar patrons who had gathered to watch the game mostly groaned in sympathy for Janko Rhee.

 

“Idiot’s Array,” Emma said, huge grin on her face.

 

After that there was silence around the table as Emma reached out to pull her winnings in. She got halfway before Janko screamed bloody murder and drew his blaster. He aimed the barrel right at Emma’s head.

 

“Get your hands off that pot right now!” He said.

 

“Why would I do that?” Emma said, sounding calm despite the situation.

 

“‘Cause this blaster in your face says you will! I don’t know how you did it, but ain’t no way you got that last hand without cheatin’!”

 

“The cards fell the way the were supposed to, Janko. They just didn’t fall the way you wanted them to. Happens to the best of us. There’s no need for you to be a sore loser about this.”

 

“Oh, I ain’t sore! In fact, I’m in such a good mood, I  _ insist _ on letting you give me a chance to win my money back with another hand. Even better: since we’re such good friends now, what say you just give me the pot right now and we’ll call ourselves even?”

 

“Well, now, Janko...I couldn’t do that…”

 

“Sure you can...especially when you consider that if you don’t, I’m gonna put a blaster bolt through your head.”

 

“Oh! Well, you’re not actually going to shoot me …”

 

“You sound pretty confident. What’s to stop me?”

 

“Just the thermal detonator I’m holding between my thighs.”

 

There was a collectve gasp in the audience, then the patrons closest to the table took a step back and waited while the Rodian and Twi’lek ducked under the table to see for themselves. Sure enough, a gold sphere with blinking lights was nestled squarely between Emma’s thighs. The other players straightened up, looked at Janko and nodded their heads.

 

“See,” Emma added, “I’m clamping down on a deadman’s switch with my legs. I’m comfortable right now, but any sudden movement is going to jostle me...and make me release the detonator. If that happens, everybody in this cantina - and the next couple of buildings - will, shall we say, become one with the Force. And I’m pretty sure that receiving a blaster bolt through the head will jostle me.”

 

“You’re bluffing! That means you go up with the rest of us!”

 

“Well, that’s the gamble, isn’t it? Am I trying to scare you or do I have a death wish? You never heard of me before we met today, right? That means I don’t have some rep for you to judge me by. That leaves you with a fifty-fifty chance. Either I’m bluffing, or I’m not, and the only way to find out is for you to shoot. If you’re right, I’m dead and the pot’s yours. If you’re wrong, we’re all dead, and you lose everything.

 

“So, you could take the gamble and risk everyone’s lives...or you can simply accept the outcome of this game and avoid that risk. The choice is yours.”

 

More silence as Janko kept his blaster leveled at Emma’s head and Emma looked past the barrel of the weapon into Janko’s eyes. The crowd around them held their breath and eyed Janko, wondering what he would do.

 

Finally, Janko slowly withdrew the weapon and then holstered it. Then he smiled at Emma and said, “Sure...right. No hard feelin’s. You won fair and square. Come to Bay 67 in about an hour and you can claim your winnings!”

 

“Pleasure doing business with you,” Emma said, then everyone started breathing again as she gathered and pocketed the pile of credit chips and stuck the cylinders in holders in her vest. As the crowd melted away and the other players moved on to other things she reached down and grabbed the thermal detonator and deactivated it. Only then did she stand.

 

She looked around the cantina and spotted someone headed toward her. Someone beautiful, with long, dark hair and red, red lips and a curvy body encased in tight leather pants and a light blue top, and the only thing that broke up her perfect lines were the holsters strapped to each thigh. Emma grinned at the sight and moved to intercept the woman, grabbing her by her biceps and planting a kiss on those beautiful lips.

 

When they parted, Emma said, “Where’d you go? You missed everything!”

 

“The refresher,” Regina Mihls said. “Fair warning: the line is murder. I almost didn’t make it. Anyway, I didn’t want to stay and watch you lose that pile of money you were building up.”

 

“Oh, ye of little faith,” Emma said. “I kicked their asses!”

 

“Wait…you won everything? Emma, that’s perfect! That was more than enough to pay off Fiona.”

 

“And, we got a bonus!” Emma showed her the code cylinder.

 

“What’s that for?”

 

“Our new  _ ship! _ ”

 

Regina’s eyebrow went up. “ _ What  _ new ship?”

* * *

 

  
  
  
  


An hour later, Emma and Regina were at the spaceport walking through the entrance to Bay 67. “Bloody hell…” Regina muttered at the behemoth she saw there.

 

Emma grinned. “Isn’t it awesome? It’s a Gozanti-class cruiser!”

 

“I know what it is, Emma. I was born on the planet where they’re made.” The ship looked like a giant gray breadbox with blocky wings and three massive thrusters aft. There were docking ports on the wings for smaller craft and gun turrets mounted above and below.

 

It only took Regina a second to decide. “We can’t keep it.”

 

“Why not?” Emma said. “It’s fantastic!”

 

“It’s an Imperial ship! The CEC builds Gozantis this way for the Empire!”

 

“Well, obviously other people besides the Empire own them,” Emma said. “I didn’t win it off an Imperial officer. I won it off a pirate.”

 

“Who probably stole it himself, and if he killed an Imperial crew to do that…”

 

“Relax. Janko Rhee’s not _ that _ tough. It may be just surplus that Janko got at auction...or whoever he stole it from got it at auction. Either way, we can worry about the thing’s pedigree later.” She held up the cylinder. “Right now this thing says its  _ ours _ .”

 

“Even if we weren’t worried about tangling with the Empire, we wouldn’t be able to operate this ship by ourselves. It usually requires a crew of 12, which means we need at least six to keep it running. We need a crew.”

 

“No we don’t! You and I can handle her just fine by ourselves. And anyway, we can always buy a couple of droids to handle anything important that we can’t do.”

 

“With what money?”

 

Emma jangled the credits in her jeans pockets. “We’ve got enough for three good droids right now.”

 

“No, Emma! We need that to pay off Fiona! The only reason we risked coming to this mudball was so we could finally pay off Fiona and get the bounty off our heads!”

 

“We can always do that later. Fiona’s on the other side of the planet. She doesn’t even know we’re here.”

 

“You’d be wrong about that, Swan,” a new voice said.

 

Regina closed her eyes and cursed because she recognized the voice, then she opened her eyes and turned slowly, hoping against hope she was wrong. She wasn’t.

 

Walking into the bay was Ingrid Arend’L, notorious local bounty hunter. She was flanked by her favorite sidekicks, her nieces Elsa and Anna. No one knew how their parents felt about them working for their ruthless aunt, mainly because no one had heard from their parents in ages. All anyone knew was that they were nowhere to be found, and Ingrid had always wanted little girls of her own. Now the little girls were all grown up, and they had blaster rifles aimed at Regina and Emma as they approached.

 

Regina put on her prettiest smile and said, “Ingrid! Long time no see. You’re looking well.”

 

Ingrid smiled right back. “Well, thanks, Regina. So do you.”

 

“I suppose Fiona Blak sent you…”

 

“She certainly did.”

 

“How’d she know we were here?” Emma said. “Did a sore-losing little piece of scum named Janko tell her?”

 

“He didn’t have to,” Anna said. “We did. We were in the cantina in time to see your triumphant victory over him.”

 

“Well played, by-the-way,” Elsa said. “That was some brilliant card-playing...although one of these days you might want to mention to your victims that you used to deal Sabacc for a living back on Coruscant, just so they understand what they’re getting into.”

 

“And ruin the mystery and sense of adventure? I’d never do that.”

 

Regina got the conversation back on track. “Look, Ingrid, we have Fiona’s money. We can give it to her at any time. If you could just tell her that…”

 

Ingrid huffed and drew her own blaster. “I’m not here to play messenger, Regina. I’m here to collect your heads.”

 

“We can’t pay her back if we’re dead.”

 

“Considering she offered us twice what you owe to kill you, I’m guessing she’s past waiting for you to pay her back. Now she just wants examples made.”

 

Emma moved close to Regina, close enough to hide her left hand. “Guess it’s over, babe,” she said.

 

“Don’t call me babe,” Regina said. “I don’t want to die with that being your last word.”

 

“Okay, then my last words will be ‘Close your eyes, sweetheart.’”

 

Regina and Emma closed their eyes, then Emma raised her left hand, which drew the gaze of the other women, which left them wholly unprepared for when Emma activated the stun flare she was holding. Ingrid and her nieces screamed as the piercing white light the device emitted blinded them. When it was safe, Emma opened her eyes and drew a blaster, then she shot all three bounty hunters while they recovered.

 

“Time to go!” She told Regina. They ran to the ship’s main access hatch and Emma inserted the cylinder into a security port near the hatch.

 

“Emma, what about  _ Henry _ ?” Regina said as she covered Emma.

 

“We’ll have him follow us by remote and hook into one of the docking ports. We can do that from the bridge.”

 

Just as the hatch opened the bounty hunters had recovered enough to start firing at Regina and Emma, but not enough for their aim to be true. After several blaster bolts inpacted around her Regina drove them back with several wild shots of her own. By the time the hunters had found cover Regina and Emma were in the ship and buttoning up.

 

Anna cursed as hatch closed. All three women were nursing painful wounds. Ingrid’s was worst, a hit in the shoulder. “We have to get you looked at,” Anna said to her aunt.

 

“Later,” Ingrid said. “Right now our bounty’s getting away!” When Elsa started to raise her rifle, Ingrid said, “Don’t bother! It would take hours to blast our way in. We need to get to our ship!”

* * *

 

  
  
  
  


Aboard the cruiser, Emma and Regina ran to the bridge. Regina immediately sat down at the pilot controls. “Hey! I’m going to fly it!” Emma said.

 

Regina pointed at herself and said, “Born on Corellia. I’m flying! You just make sure _Henry_ is right behind us.” Regina got the engines going and activated the repulsorlifts.

 

As the ship started to move, Emma took out a different code cylinder and extended it into a data spike, which she inserted in a port on the navigator’s control panel. She watched a readout on a display screen as the spike sent commands to the ship’s computers and comm systems. “Okay...it’s working…” she said.

* * *

  
  
  
  


Elsewhere, in another bay, the tiny VCX fighter/transport dubbed  _ Henry  _ started receiving remote commands from the Gozanti cruiser and activated. A moment later it was taking off and streaking out of the bay. Soon it joined the cruiser in the air as the bigger ship made its way into space. In orbit the little ship tried to dock with the big one. That’s when the first problem became evident.

  
  


* * *

  
  


“He’s not docking,” Emma said. “He can’t. It says the docking system’s not compatible. I thought all these docking systems were universal.”

 

“One problem at a time,” Regina said. “Just make sure he stays in formation with us and follows us into hyperspace.”

 

“Where are we going?”

 

“Someplace far away from here, and I want to get going before…”

 

Suddenly they were being fired on. There were alarms and impact vibrations throughout the ship.

 

“...that!” Regina checked the sensors. “It looks like Ingrid and the Ice Sisters in that stupid gunship of theirs!”

 

“I’m slaving  _ Henry’s _ nav-computer to ours,” Emma said. “He’ll jump where we jump, when we jump.” More impacts. “I should probably get in one of the turrets and return fire.”

 

“Don’t bother! We want to run, not fight! I’ve almost got the jump calculated. Just angle the deflector and hang on!”

 

Emma did as told as Regina made the final preparations for the light-speed jump. There was one more brace of laser impacts, then the stars streaked past and the ship was in hyperspace.

 

“Henry still with us?” Regina asked.

 

Emma checked the readouts. “Right alongside.”

 

Both women let out breaths and sat back in their seats. “Getting chased out of a system is never fun,” Regina said.

 

“But this time we’re not leaving empty-handed,” Emma said. “We’ve got cash and a brand-new ship to show for it.”

 

“I’m still not crazy about this, Emma. We’ve already got a ship.”

 

“ _ Henry’s _ a shuttle, not a ship.”

 

“ _ Henry’s _ a fighter.”

 

“ _ Henry’s _ a shuttle with long guns, and that still doesn’t make him a ship.”

 

“Don’t bad-mouth  _ Henry _ . I love  _ Henry _ . He’s _ our _ ship.”

 

“I love _ Henry _ , too, but he’s not the type of ship we need. This ship is an honest-to-goodness transport, tailor-made for interstellar hauling. Now we can take on bigger jobs than just local smuggling runs in small volumes. I’m not saying we should get rid of  _ Henry _ , but this is business.”

 

“I think we’ve been doing just fine up to now. Those small, local runs need to be made, too.”

 

“We’ll make more money with bigger runs into the interior.”

 

“Yes, because very big ships with lots of guns are shooting at each other all over the interior.”

 

“Eventually the war will reach the rim, Regina. There won’t be any avoiding it soon. We should be finding ways to make as much money as we can before it gets here. Getting this ship is the first step...and she’s beautiful! Look…” Emma ran her hand up and down her seat. “Rrrrich Correllian Leather.”

 

Regina smirked at that. “I just think that this thing might be more trouble than it’s worth. A ship this big needs a crew and a lot of upkeep.”

 

“We can make it work for us. We should at least try. This ship could be the solution to so many of our problems. Haven’t you always wanted to have a ship this big? Haven’t you always said you wished you had a ship big enough to live in, one that would keep you from being stuck planetside and vulnerable? One that would keep you one step ahead of that crazy mother of yours?”

 

That last was Emma’s go-to argument. Invoke Regina’s mother and she would agree to almost anything, especially if that thing would be a cause of aggravation for Cora Mihls. “Fine,” Regina said, reluctance plain in her voice, “but if we’re going to keep it I want it to be gone over with a fine-toothed comb. If there’s something seriously wrong with the thing I want to know about it before we start moving cargo with it.” With that she got up and turned to leave the bridge.

 

“Fine,” Emma said, “great. So we take it to a mechanic. Where to?”

 

“We’re already headed there,” Regina said as she went through the door.

 

Emma checked the readout of their destination. She cursed at what she saw. “Regina!” No response. She got up and ran out the door and kept going until she caught up with Regina. “Killick, Regina, seriously? That’s halfway around the rim!”

 

“Don’t exaggerate,” Regina said. “It’s not that far.”

 

“Far enough that we’ll spend two days in hyper!”

 

“Which will give me some time to do some looking around on my own in peace.”

 

“What do you think you’ll find?”

 

“I’ll let you know when I find it.” Regina turned a corner with that.

 

Emma stopped and let her go. She was silently fuming. She didn’t really have a problem with how long it would take to get to the Killick system. She was just upset about who she knew would be there.

 

They were about to visit a part of Regina’s past Emma wished would stay forgotten…

 

**TBC...**


	2. Imperial Droid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much everyone giving this story a chance. It's a number of firsts for me: my first SwanQueen fic, my first Star Wars fic and the first fic I originally posted on AO3. I'm not sure exactly where we'll end up here but I intend for us to have fun along the way.

It was the strangest and sexiest thing Emma’d ever seen in her life...but it wasn’t the first time she’d seen it.

Despite their current rough-and-tumble profession, Regina Mihls was just as fashion-conscious today as she was when Cora Mihls used to show her off to Corellian society. As such, she wouldn’t be caught dead wearing a set of coveralls. This posed a problem, however, as Regina had always enjoyed getting into the guts of ship and speeder engines. So how to do something she loved without doing something she hated, and ruining good clothes in the process?

Regina’s solution was simple: Strip down to her underwear and socks and get to work.

Thus, Emma was treated to the sight of her girlfriend crawling around the engine pit of their new ship wearing nothing but tiny strips of white cloth around her pelvis and breasts, cloth booties on her feet and safety goggles and gloves. It was something Regina did all the time. It was bizarre, mind-boggling...and Emma couldn’t take her eyes off her. Regina would bend and stretch and twist to reach the circuits and parts she wanted to check out. If she didn’t think Regina would toss her out an airlock for it, Emma would sell tickets to the awesome show.

Then she’d buy all the tickets, because she’d always been just the tiniest bit jealous over her partner.

Of course, fun show or not, Emma was getting a little worried. What was supposed to have been a quick once-over of the main propulsion assembly had turned into an hour-long inspection, punctuated at random intervals by grunts, curses and female snorts from Regina.

Finally, Regina climbed out of the pit and raised the goggles off her eyes. “We’ve got a few problems,” she said.

Emma didn’t respond. She couldn’t. She was mesmerized by the sight of so much olive skin and so little white fabric slick and shiny with sweat and lubricant standing mere inches away from her.

Regina smiled and shook her head, then she tucked a finger under Emma’s chin and lifted green eyes to meet her brown ones. “ _Emma,_ ” She said, “we’ve got a few problems.”

Emma forced herself to forget Regina’s body and focus on her face. “What? What’s wrong?”

“Well for starters,” Regina said, “the hyperdrive motivator is on its last legs…”

“What? But...it’s working. We’re in hyperspace.”

“It’s working, but the strain is breaking down the components. Without major repairs or replacement it’s probably got two or three more long-range jumps before it fails completely.”

“Well, okay, I suppose we could get it replaced…”

“That’s not all. Two of the auxiliary power converters have already failed. We definitely have to replace them…”

“Okay, so the motivator and two power converters…”

“And the fuel injection assembly has been bypassed so many ways the original system is nothing but a ragged patchwork…”

“...and the fuel injection assembly…”

“And I don’t even want to think about all the tibanna leaks in the coolant loop…”

“Okay! Okay...wow, Regina! You’re being awfully negative toward our new baby.”

“That’s because our new ‘baby’ has been put through the wringer, Emma, and I don’t know if it was cheapness or laziness on Janko Rhee’s part but I can tell the ship’s lacked for basic maintenance for years.”

“Okay, so what...it needs a tune up? A quick check-up? You’ll replace a couple of circuits, tighten a few lugs…”

“Emma, ideally we would put this thing in a dock and completely overhaul it. As it stands, we’d need weeks to get it into proper working condition by ourselves. We need expert help.”

Emma huffed. “Does it have to be _her_?”

“She used to work for CEC, and she might be willing to make all the stop-gap repairs we need for a discount.”

“Discount? Why don’t you just smile at her and bat your eyes? She’ll probably do the overhaul herself for free.”

Regina grinned. “You’re jealous.”

 _Of course I’m jealous, woman!_ “Not at all. I just know that’s what you’re counting on. You want to trade on your past relationship to try and get some free repairs out of your old girlfriend. I find it a little unseemly, if you must know…”

“Oh really? Well suck it up, because if it means not spending an arm and a leg from each of us on fixing this behemoth I would lay myself prostrate before her and worship her with hymnals if she asked for it. Now, I’m going to get cleaned up. Do you want to help me or do you want to stand there and sulk?”

Regina turned and headed down the corridor without waiting for an answer. Emma actually had one ready, but the sight of Regina walking away from behind drove the comment from her mind, so she kept her mouth shut and trotted to catch up.

 

* * *

 

They were both on the bridge and fully dressed and armed when the ship came out of hyperspace in the Killick System. The main habitable world in the system was mostly ocean, with small land masses placed haphazardly across its surface. Regina piloted the cruiser into the atmosphere and headed for the largest land mass, which was also the most heavily populated.

At the outer edge of the Cortana Spaceport sat a seperate establishment with two landing bays of its own and a surrounding field strewn with old spaceships and their parts. This was both the home and business location of Sno Whyte, former Corellian Engineering Corporation engineer and current independent spacecraft and hovercraft mechanic.

Regina landed the ship in the biggest clearing she could find in the surrounding field while Emma remote-landed Henry close by. Meanwhile, Sno, who had been working on a speeder in one of the bays, heard both ships descend and started out to have a look. She was halfway to the cruiser when the boarding ramp came down.

Regina was out of the ship first and spotted Sno when she was partway down the ramp. She smiled and waited at the bottom of the ramp. Sno smiled back when she got close enough to talk in a normal voice. “Hey, you…” Regina said.

“Hey, you,” Sno said, then she walked right up and caught Regina in a hug, followed by a long kiss on the lips.

Emma, who was still on the ramp, caught sight of this and frowned. Then she cleared her throat. Then she rolled her eyes and said, “I get it, all right? You used to be together and now you’re not but you still have a thing for each other! Got it! Can we move on now?”

With that Regina and Sno parted and turned to Emma with sly smiles on their faces. “Yep, it’s still fun to make her jealous,” Sno said to Regina, then, “Hey, Emma.”

“Hey, Sno,” Emma spat out. Emma hated Sno Whyte. Hated her pretty face, her tomboy body, her pixie haircut, her genius brain, everything.

She especially hated knowing that Sno had gotten to see Regina naked more times than she could count.

Unfortunately, the little mechanic was oblivious to this blistering hatred and simply walked up the ramp like she had an open invitation. “So, what have you brought me this time, ‘Gina?”

“Probably trouble,” Regina said. “She’s got problems.”

“I could tell that as you landed. You’ve got an imbalance in the repulsorlift firing sequence. I could hear it. What else is wrong with her?”

“She just needs a couple of adjustments,” Emma said, feeling defensive.

“Can you take a look?” Regina asked.

“Sure,” Sno said, “I don’t have any rush jobs at the moment.”

“Thanks, Sno,” Regina said, “we’d really appreciate it.”

Emma turned away and mimicked Regina with another eye roll, then she was startled a little when Regina tapped her on the shoulder. “Come on,” the brunette said, “let’s take _Henry_ into the port and stock up on provisions.”

“What...you want to just leave our new ship alone with Sno?”

“Why not? Are you afraid she’ll steal it?”

“Well, frankly…!”

Now Regina rolled her eyes. “Please! One, if she tries to take off with it we’ll be in _Henry_ so we can just chase her down. Second...let her take the thing! We literally won’t be any worse off than we were two days ago. Now let’s go get those supplies.”

 

* * *

 

Emma and Regina returned two hours later with _Henry_ ’s cargo area loaded with all the food and small spare parts the pair could afford with Emma’s Sabacc winnings. Emma had wanted to use the winnings to start up another game and possibly double what they had, but Regina had nipped that idea in the bud. One of these days Emma would press her luck too far and run up against a better Sabacc shark...or someone who didn’t care if she blew herself up with a detonator.

On arrival they saw that the space cruiser was still sitting where they’d left it. Emma was slightly relieved. Regina didn’t know how to feel.

Emma landed Henry in the same spot as before. “It’s too bad we can’t dock the two ships,” she said. “We’ll need an anti-grav to take all this stuff aboard.”

“We can ask Sno about that,” Regina said. She got up from the copilot’s seat and went into the back. There was a case of bantha milk among the provisions. Regina opened it and took out one of the small bottles and took it with her when they left the shuttle.

When they boarded the cruiser they went straight below decks to the engine pit. The opening was surrounded by parts removed from the assembly. “Sno!” Regina called out. “We’re back!”

“Coming!” Sno called back, then a moment later she crawled out of the pit, and in the process reminded Emma of where Regina had picked up her sexy engine-diving habit. When they’d left, Sno had been wearing bulky mechanic’s coveralls. Now she was in even skimpier skivvies than Regina had been wearing earlier, and her slim, compact body glistened.

Regina smiled at the sight and handed Sno the bottle. “Here.”

“Oh, thank you!” Sno said. She opened the bottle and chugged down half the contents, then sighed and licked blue milk from her lips.

Emma closed her eyes and scolded herself. _She’s not sexy! She’s NOT sexy! She’s THE ENEMY!_

“So…” Regina said, “how bad off are we?”

Sno shook her head. “I don’t know where to begin. Did you get this thing in a salvage yard?”

“No!” Emma said, taking offense. “I won her!”

“Are you sure the other guy didn’t lose it to you on purpose?” Sno said.

“Of course I’m sure!” Emma said.

“Actually, _I’m_ not sure,” Regina said. “How bad is it?”

“The engines need a complete overhaul. It’s easy to tell that the assembly has had just enough maintenance to keep the ship flying, but eventually every system will break down, some of them catastrophically.”

Regina’s eyes went a little wide at that, then she turned to glare at Emma saying _I told you so!_ with just the look.

Emma faltered, but refused to give up her new toy so quickly. “Okay...okay...but you just said it can be kept flying without the overhaul, ‘cause it has been, right?”

“Well, sure,” Sno said, “but you’d never be able to just sit back and fly. You’d need somebody to constantly monitor the engine assembly to keep the small failures that will happen from cascading into the big ones you don’t want to happen.”

“In other words,” Regina said, “we need a _crew_.” Then she hit Emma with that look again.

Sno shrugged. “Well anyway, I’m glad you told me about winning her. I was dying to know how you got your hands on an Imperial ship.”

Emma huffed. “It’s not Imperial! Civilians fly them, too. I won this one off a pirate.”

“Well, Emma, civilians usually operate a variant of the class, but even if that weren’t the case, this one’s definitely Imperial. Let me show you.” Sno put her milk down on the deck and picked up one of the loose parts. She took an image intensifier from her tool kit and held the intensifier and the part up so Emma and Regina could see.

“No way…” Emma breathed.

“Is that…?” Regina began.

The intensifier showed that the emblem of the Galactic Empire and a series of numbers was microstamped on the part.

“Every single part of the ship has that sigil and ID code stamped on it,” Sno said. “It helps the Empire keep track of all their ships in the event of casualty, like if it’s lost in battle, or it breaks down, or if it’s stolen…”

“Stolen?” Regina said.

“Yeah, or however the ship ends up out of service, with that stamp the Empire can find out what happened to the ship even if it’s completely destroyed. My guess is somebody managed to boost this one from a repair station before it could be overhauled the way it should be.”

Regina winced. “So...just to be clear...this is an _Imperial_ cruiser.” She said that with one more I told you so! look at Emma.

“Well,” Emma said, wavering under Regina’s glare, “If it’s so important to them why haven’t they come looking for it?”

“They’re probably too busy chasing rebels all over the galaxy to care about one patrol cruiser.” Sno said. “I’m not surprised that it’s managed to stay out of the Emperor’s crosshairs. If you want to keep it, you should probably be very careful about drawing attention to yourselves.”

“Like say, _not_ smuggling huge loads of contraband with it into the interior?” Regina said.

 _Wow, she’s not gonna let up with the I-told-you-so’s,_ Emma thought, then she said, “I want to keep it…”

“Emma!”

“Come on, Regina! I’ve never owned a ship like this! Who cares who it was made for? It’s ours now! I know we have to be careful, but let’s keep it!”

They held each others’ gazes, Emma’s eyes pleading, Regina’s wary. After a minute Regina huffed and lowered her head. “We’re so going to regret this…” She muttered.

“Yes!” Emma cheered.

“ _But,_ ” Regina said, “you heard Sno. We need to take on new crew members…”

“We really don’t! I still say we just need to buy a droid or two to help out.”

“Sno, help me out here…!”

“Actually she’s right, ‘Gina.”

“She is?” Regina said.

“I am?” Emma said.

“Well, you’re part right. You should have a sentient engineer to make critical decisions, but you can easily use droids to handle the day-to-day maintenance.”

Emma smiled. She hated Sno just a tad bit less at that moment. “There! See? We just need to buy a droid or two.”

“No you don’t,” Sno said.

Emma suddenly hated her again. “What? You just said we can use droids.”

“And you can. You just don’t have to buy any new ones.”

Emma and Regina looked utterly lost.

Sno cocked her head. “Didn’t you know?”

 

* * *

 

Sno led them to another part of the engineering level, a small room with four doors. Sno walked over to the closest door and worked its control. The door slid up, opening to reveal…

“An R2 unit!” Emma said.

It was indeed an R2 series Astromech droid, one of the versatile repair automatons famous throughout the galaxy for their reliability and ingenuity. This one was painted black and silver and had the Imperial emblem stamped on its dome.

“There’s one behind each of these doors,” Sno said. “The Empire insists on including several highly capable droids on smaller ships because the crew needs of their capital ships tend to create shortfalls elsewhere. So really, ships like this one were planned with Emma’s idea in mind.”

Emma was blown away by the sudden windfall. “We have _four_ R2 units!”

“Janko didn’t say anything about these, did he?” Regina said.

“Not a word,” Emma said, examining the droid.

“Well,” Sno said, “If my theory about how the ship was ‘acquired’ is true, he probably didn’t know they were here, especially given the half-hearted job he made of keeping up with the ship’s systems.”

“Double win!” Emma said. “I scored something of his that he didn’t even know about!”

“They’re going to have to be reprogrammed first,” Sno warned. “You’ll need a qualified engineer to do that for you, but after that you’ll have all the mechanical help you could ever need.”

Emma read the designation plate on the dome. “R-2-G-6. Excellent! This is going to work out great, Regina!” With that, Emma reached for one of the droid’s controls.

Sno’s eyes bugged out. “Emma wait! Don’t turn it on!”

Her command fell on deaf ears. Emma’s fingers were already depressing the contact. A second later, the droid lit up and started emitting beeps and whistles as its dome turned left and right.

“Yes! It works!” Emma said.

The droid extended its third wheel and rolled out of the recess it was in. “Beepbupbeepbup _beep_ bupbup!” It said as it rolled around in a small circle and its dome swung back and forth wildly.

“Emma, we need to deactivate it right now,” Sno said.

“No, it’s cute!” Emma said. “Let it run around for a bit!”

“ _Bweee_ beedabeep!” The droid said as it seemed to pick a direction. Sno reached out to deactivate it, but it sped out of the room with an electronic “WAAAAOOOOOOOW!”

“Damn it!” Sno said as she grabbed one of Regina’s blasters and gave chase. Regina and Emma went after her and found her lining up a shot on the droid as it headed for a travel chute.

Emma slammed her hand down before she could fire. The blaster bolt holed and scorched the deck. The droid got in the chute and headed up.

“What’s wrong with you?” Emma said. “Don’t shoot my droid!”

Sno wheeled on her. “IT’S NOT _YOUR_ DROID, EMMA! It won’t be until it’s reprogrammed! Right now it is an _Imperial_ droid, and it just realized it’s on an _Imperial_ ship that’s not controlled by an _Imperial_ crew, and under those circumstances it will execute its default programming, which is to get the ship back under _Imperial_ control by any means necessary!”

Emma needed a moment for that to sink in. “Ohhhh....” she said.

“Yes, ‘Oh!’ Come on! We have to stop it!”

Sno led the others through the ship at a run, less concerned that she was running around in just her underwear than she was about what the droid would do when it reached the bridge. The three women got to the bridge hatch just in time to see it close and lock.

Sno cursed. “We’re too late!”

“What will it do?” Regina said.

“If it can’t get a signal out from the surface it will launch the ship and try again from orbit. If that doesn’t get results it will head for the closest Imperial base in its databanks. The good news is the tranceiver is one of the many things on this ship that doesn’t work properly, so it can’t send a signal from the surface. The bad news is…”

Suddenly the women were thrown off balance as the ship lifted into the air.

“Let me guess,” Regina said, “the bad news is it won’t take the droid long to realize he needs to take off.”

“We have to get onto the bridge!” Sno said. “I could probably hot-wire the controls, but that will take too long!”

“I’ve got this,” Emma said, then she drew her blaster.

Sno went bug-eyed again. “Emma, dont!”

Emma fired. The blaster bolt incinerated the control panel.

Sno looked incensed. “Why did you do that??”

Emma shrugged. “It’s an automatic door. If you wreck the controls it opens automatically so no one gets trapped behind it. It’s a safety feature.”

“Unless the space behind the door is _supposed_ to remain secure,” Sno raged, “like _the bridge of an Imperial starship_!”

Emma needed another second. “Ohhh…”

“Seriously, Emma! Did you just wake up one morning and decide to become a smuggler because you thought it might be fun?”

Emma blushed a little. “Kinda, yeah…”

Regina put a hand on Emma’s shoulder. “Long story, we’ll tell you later. Right now what can we do?”

Sno paced a bit in front of the hatch, then froze. “We fight fire with fire!”

She broke into a run again and led the others back through the ship to the droid room. She opened the door to another R2 unit and opened one of its inspection hatches.

“You’re going to start up another one?” Emma said.

“Yes,” Sno said, “but not before I get it to work for us.” She began manipulating controls inside the inspection hatch, working as fast as she could. Precious minutes passed as she did whatever she was doing. Finally she closed the hatch and turned on the droid.

The R2 unit woke with a series of beeps, extended its third wheel and rushed out of the room, then headed for an input terminal near the engine pit and plugged in.

“Head to the bridge!” Sno said. “If the door opens, don’t hesitate!”

Emma and Regina nodded and ran all the way back to the bridge with their blasters drawn. They positioned themselves by the hatch and waited, wondering what would happen. Then the hatch opened, and they spotted R2-G6 plugged into the terminal on the control panel.

They both took aim and fired.

“WAAAAAOOOOOOW!” The droid screamed as several bolts blew off its dome and left it a sparking ruin.

Emma and Regina entered the bridge. “We’re in space!” Emma said. “Do you think it got a message out?”

Regina was examining the controls. “I’m not sure, but I don’t want to be in this system if the answer is yes!”

Sno came running onto the bridge then. “Did you...oh, yeah, you got it.”

“How’d you get the door open?” Emma said.

“I made the other unit think this unit was bringing the ship to the rebels. It opened the door before shutting back down.” She grinned, proud of herself.

“Nice job,” Regina said, “but we think the droid got a message out. We’ve got to get out of here.”

“She’s right, Sno. Thanks for everything, and we’ll…”

“Emma, she’s coming with us.”

“She is?” Emma said.

“I am?” Sno said.

Regina turned to Sno. “I don’t want you to be here alone if and when the Empire decides to investigate this world. Our only safety now is mobility.”

“Regina…” Emma began.

Regina turned to her. “ _Besides_ , we’ve just had a very _graphic_ demonstration of why we need a qualified engineer in the crew, and Sno is both well-suited and right here with us.” Back to Sno. “We can offer a share of future profits, which will be tax-free no matter which side wins the war.”

Sno just stared at her for a moment, thinking, then she took a step closer and said softly, “Is your mother still mad about that whole thing…?”

Regina smiled. “Don’t know, don’t intend to go back home and find out.”

“Agreed!” Sno extended her hand. “I’m in!”

Emma rolled her eyes as they shook hands, then said, “Well, whoever’s going someone will have to pilot _Henry_.” She pointed at the control panel data port. Parts from the exploding R2 unit had damaged it, so it couldn’t be used to remote pilot the shuttle.

“Wait,” Sno said, “why don’t you...oh, right! The docking ports on this thing can only be used by specific Imperial vehicles. They’d have to be reconfigured.”

“Can you reconfigure them?” Regina asked.

“Not quickly, and not without a couple of days in my shop…” She started pacing again, working the problem. “Okay...the VCX has auxiliary magnetic docking clamps. We just go back down, latch Henry to the top of the cruiser, and we’re gone. We won’t have direct access to him while we’re in space, but we don’t need to divide the crew, and we can just get moving. I just need five minutes to pack some stuff…”

 

* * *

 

Back on the surface, Regina and Emma hurried to transfer the supplies from the Henry to the new ship while Sno grabbed spare coveralls, tools and diagnostic devices. Ten minutes later, Henry was clamped to the cruiser and the cruiser was rising from the surface. Regina took it into hyperspace from orbit.

All three women breathed relieved sighs at making it out of the Killick System. “Well, that was all kinds of fun,” Sno quipped. She turned and headed off the bridge. “I’m going to get to work on reprogramming the other droids, then they can get rid of their friend and repair the bridge.”

“Hey!” Emma called after her. “It’s my ship, so I’m the Captain!”

“Hah! Sure you are…” Sno said before the hatch closed.

Emma frowned. “ _Must_ we?”

Regina nodded. “We must, for a host of reasons.”

“I don’t think she’s going to respect my being captain…”

“Aww, Sweetie…” Regina cupped Emma’s chin and smiled lovingly. “You’ll always be the captain of my heart.” She pulled Emma in for a long kiss, which Emma greatly appreciated. When they parted, Regina said, “As for being captain of the ship, you’re just going to have to earn her respect.”

“I’d rather just shove her out an airlock.”

“Not before she’s done with the droids. Meanwhile, we’ll be in Silesia in a couple of hours. We can get some more supplies and Sno can work on the docking ports some. When we’re done there, where should we go?”

Emma suddenly grinned. “Harloff Minor.”

Regina winced. “Really? Why would you want to go…Oh, you’re _kidding!_ ”

“Hey, you get to have your ex on the crew, so I get to have mine.”

“Yes, but my ex is actually _useful…_ ”

“My ex will be plenty useful! You’ll see!”

 

* * *

 

Elsewhere in the galaxy, a tall, beautiful woman strolled out of her refresher and into her bedchamber. She’d just finished her morning shower and was drying off with a large towel. She walked over to a full length mirror and dropped the towel so she could examine her naked form. She was absolutely stunning.

It depressed her no end. “What a waste,” she sighed. “I could be charming the daylights out of some aristocrat from the Central Reaches. I could be making some Trade Federation lord my generous benfactor. I could be a Governor’s trophy wife.” She removed the shower cap from her long red hair and let it fall down her back as she sighed again. “Curse my parents for instilling me with a sense of duty.”

Just then an alarm sounded from the desk in a corner of the chamber. She walked over to it and pressed a control. The holo-projector sitting on the corner of the desk projected a six-inch holographic image of an Imperial officer...whose eyes went wide when he saw the woman’s body. He averted his eyes and said, “Forgive me, ma’am…!”

The woman rolled her eyes and said, “Spare me the chivalrous nonsense and tell me why you’ve disturbed my morning routine.”

The officer came to attention and looked squarely into her eyes. “Yes, ma’am. We’ve received a transmission from a ship in the Killick System.”

“What ship is it?”

“A small cruiser, _Gozanti_ -class.”

“I wasn’t aware of any Gozantis being stationed in this sector.”

“It may not be on official business, ma’am. The transmission was a Priority Recovery signal.”

“Priority Recovery? You mean a droid sent it?”

“Apparently. The transmission included the identification code of a Gozanti that went missing and was presumed lost on its way to the repair facility on Gobel Sevrin.”

“Well, obviously it’s been found. What do you expect me to do about it?”

“Forgive me, ma’am, but standing orders in this situation are clear…”

“It was a rhetorical question, Commander. I’m well aware of standing orders. Is the message repeating?”

“It repeated twice before it stopped abruptly. There’s been nothing from the system since.”

“Very well. Dispatch a squad of troopers to the system to investigate. If they find no sign of the cruiser then they are to determine if it was actually ever there and, if so, where it went next.”

“Very Good, ma’am.” The holographic officer disappeared after that.

The woman went back over to the mirror. “So now I’m down to chasing ghosts,” she complained to her reflection. “Who knew a life of naval service could be so... _boring?_ ”

With a final sigh, Captain Greer Zelena, commanding officer of the Imperial Star Destroyer _Wizard_ , turned away from the mirror and went to put on her uniform.

 

**TBC...**


	3. Mutual Interest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're still out there, thank you for sticking with this.

An Imperial shuttle emerged from light-speed in orbit around Killick’s main planet. The flight crew encircled the planet a few times, scanning nearby space and the atmosphere. There was no sign of the Gozanti. That meant they’d have to land and initiate a surface search. The pilot wanted to land at the big spaceport, but the Stormtrooper Commander convinced him to try different coordinates.

 

His trooper designation was DN0187, but in his civilian life his name was David Nolan, and he was playing a hunch. He was dealing with a Gozanti cruiser that had gone missing on the way to undergoing major repairs. So what happened? Apparently it had been stolen, and while that had happened a long time ago, it was only a matter of time before whatever malfunctions had plagued the ship would cause problems for the thieves. When that moment arrived, they would have no choice but to seek help in repairing the damaged or broken down ship. They’d go to anyone but the Empire, but preferably it would be someone familiar with Correllian engineering and would be willing to charge a discounted rate and not ask questions.

 

And if the Gozanti had landed on Killick, there was only one mechanic who fit that bill.

 

That was why the shuttle ultimately landed in the field nearby Sno Whyte’s shop. David stood as soon as he felt the shuttle touch down, prompting the rest of the squad to follow suit. When the boarding ramp opened, David radioed, “Let’s move out!” to the others.

 

The Stormtroopers disembarked in perfect ranks, marching in lockstep until the boots of the last ‘trooper stepped off the ramp.

 

“Disperse!” David ordered. “Fan out and search the premises for the ship or its crew.”

 

The Stormtroopers broke ranks and brought their weapons up as they spread out in double time and searched the grounds. David walked the grounds much more slowly. There was no rush for him. If there were anything to find, he had more than enough men to help him find it.

 

Sure enough, it only took a minute before one of the troops radioed, “Commander, you should see this!”

 

“Where are you?”

 

“In the field behind the landing bays.”

 

David walked with a purpose around the shop and found a trooper standing in the dirt. The trooper pointed at the ground by his feet. “Take a look at this, Commander!”

 

David looked down. There was an impression in the coarse dirt. It was squarish and at least an inch deep.

 

“I found two others,” the trooper said, pointing “There and there. They form a triangle and it’s wide enough. They could be the landing struts of a Gozanti.”

 

“They could indeed,” David said. “Good work.” He switched his helmet radio to wide field. “Anyone else found anything?”

 

Someone else reported in: “There’s no one here, but it looks like the owner left in a hurry.”

 

No one could see David grimace behind his helmet’s skeletal visage. The report was exactly what he was afraid of. “Acknowledged! All troops, fall back to the shuttle!”

 

_ What have you done now, Sno? _ He thought.

 

The squad regrouped as quickly as it dispersed and reboarded the shuttle. As he followed suit, David radioed the pilot. “Relay this report to the ship.”

 

* * *

  
  
  


Now in full uniform and decoration, Captain Zelena stood on the command platform of the Imperial Star Destroyer  _ Wizard _ and gazed out of the forward viewports as the control pits to either side of her buzzed with activity. They had recently received orders from Fleet Command to dispatch probe droids to livable but thought-to-be uninhabited worlds in this sector, looking for what only Command knew. Zelena thought it was just so much busy work, but her ship complied. They had just launched another wave of the probes and were diligently monitoring the progress of all the active probes.

 

Zelena was about to mutter to herself about the sheer tedium of it all when an officer in the pit to her left got her attention. “Captain! We’ve received a report from the squad sent to Killick system.”

 

Zelena went over and bent down to talk to the officer. “Well? Don’t make me wait!”

 

“The Gozanti was there. The Trooper Commander believes whoever has the ship has recruited a local mechanic to make repairs on the fly.”

 

“Interesting…”

 

“Shall I recall the squad?”

 

Zelena straightened up as she thought about it. “No. We’ll go to meet them. Relay orders for them to continue the ground search. Check spaceports and fields to see if the Gozanti we want is still on the planet.”

 

“Yes, Ma’am!” The officer said, then he turned to carry out her orders.

 

Zelena stepped over to the other side of the platform and bent into the other pit. “Make ready for the jump to light-speed. Set your course for the Killick System.”

 

“Aye, Captain!” The lead officer here responded.

 

Satisfied, Zelena walked back over to the viewports and looked out of them as a pair of fighters swept past. They’d be returning to base soon as part of the jump preparations.

 

_ So the game is afoot, _ Zelena thought. Well, the thieves wouldn’t get very far. If she were going to be forced to chase down criminals in a run-down space craft, she intended to make it a very short chase, and she would do so by using every resource at her disposal to run them down - and a star destroyer was a very powerful resource indeed.

 

She smiled as she saw the stars streak and morph into hyperspace.

 

* * *

  
  
  


A few hours later, the Gozanti emerged from hyperspace on the outskirts of the Harloff System.

 

“We have to be careful how we approach the planet,” Regina said. “Harloff Minor is the next thing to a Core World, and all the Core Worlds are firmly in the grip of the Empire.”

 

She and Emma were back at the controls of the cruiser, while Sno was standing between them. “Well, this is an Imperial ship.” Sno said. “Maybe we can use that, say, make up a friend-or-foe identity that landing control won’t look too hard at.”

 

“Do we really have to?” Emma said.  “It’s not like it’s an Imperial military base…”

 

“No, but there are bound to be Imperial troops there,” Regina said, “and we don’t want to take the chance of running across some lieutenant looking to score points by recovering stolen property.”

 

Emma sighed. “Fine. Well...there’s a smuggler’s field on the southeast continent. It’s off-the-books, and not monitored, but it’s way the hell out of our way.”

 

“Well, we can land there and take  _ Henry _ to wherever we need to go.”

 

“You don’t think the Imperials would be looking for  _ Henry? _ ” Sno asked.

 

“Believe it or not, we are actually good at smuggling,” Emma said. “We’ve never been caught with any contraband in  _ Henry _ , so he shouldn’t be on any watch lists.”

 

“So we can fly him into any spaceport with no problem,” Regina said.

 

_ “But,” _ Emma said with a raised finger, “It’s going to be a pain in the ass to keep having to climb up and down the ship just to use our shuttle, so you need to finish whatever you’re doing to the docking ports, preferably before we get back.”

 

Sno just glared at her for a second, then huffed and said, “Fine,  _ Captain _ ! I’ll stay here and work on the docking ports.” With that she turned and stormed off the bridge.

 

“Ease off, Emma,” Regina said. “She really is trying to help us.”

 

“What,” Emma said, “think I hurt her feelings?”

 

“Actually, yes. I’m pretty sure she wanted to go with us.”

 

_ Like I care what she wants!  _ “Look, you’re the one who brought her on to be the engineer. The engineer doesn’t leave the ship.”

 

“Unless you need parts that only the engineer will recognize in a store…”

 

“What? Who’s side are you on?”

 

“I’m not on anybody’s side. I love you and we need her. I want you to get along with her.”

 

Emma pouted. “She started it. Like, ages ago…”

 

“Be the bigger person. One of you has to retract her claws to get the cease-fire rolling.”

 

“I’ll think about it on the way. Let’s get moving.”

 

* * *

  
  


Their next stop was Yodi Riley, a business hub and high capacity spaceport on Harloff Minor’s equator. It was considered a small town, even though it was populated by ten million of the world’s billions of inhabitants.

 

Emma and Regina left _Henry_ at the spaceport and took a public skyshuttle into the city center.. From there they had to walk a few blocks to the establishment they needed.

 

Regina was always taken aback when she came to places like this. Most of the time their business forced them to frequent cantinas and other places of ill repute, but  _ Granny’s  _ was a clean, decent establishment. A restaurant for average citizens, it actually served good food and served intoxicating beverages in moderation. In its own way that made it more dangerous than a cantina. It would be just the type of place a status-climbing Imperial would go to for lunch.

 

Emma started looking around as soon as they walked in the door. She found who she was looking for immediately, a tall, slim, pretty brunette serving customers. She had just finished with a table and started to turn away when she spotted Emma. Emma smiled brightly and waved. The waitress smiled back. The smile didn’t reach her eyes.

 

Emma started walking toward her. The waitress turned away and headed for the kitchen door. Regina expected her to go in, but instead she turned at the door and waited for them to catch up. Emma approached eagerly. Regina followed a step slower and unhooked the cover on one holster.

 

Emma stepped right up to the woman and grinned. “Hey, babe,” She said, sounding seductive.

 

“Hey, babe,” the woman said, not sounding seduced.

 

Emma missed that. She stepped even closer and looked to plant a kiss on the woman’s lips...and that’s when the barrel of a small blaster was tucked under Emma’s chin.

 

“You’ve got a lot of nerve showing your face here after what you did,” the woman hissed through her teeth.

 

The waitress was good, Regina had to admit. It was like she’d spirited the blaster into her hand. Regina assumed it had been hidden somewhere in her apron. She’d ask about it later. Right now she stepped to the side of the standoff and smiled at the waitress. “Okay, whatever Emma did, I’m sure she deserves a blaster bolt for it, but could I convince you to give her a reprieve?”

 

“There isn’t enough money in the galaxy,” the waitress said.

 

“Okay,” Regina said, “how about another form of currency?” And suddenly there was a blaster barrel poking the base of the waitress’s skull.

 

That’s when a fourth voice broke in. “You ladies gonna give me trouble?”

 

All three women turned to the end of the counter to find an older woman had come over and was eyeing them closely.

 

“No, Granny,” the waitress said. “Emma just stopped in to catch up.”

 

“Well, catch up without the hardware,” Granny said. “I run a clean place. Ruby, take your break and entertain your friends.”

 

“Yes, Granny,” Ruby said. With that, both she and Regina holstered their weapons.

 

“Well,” Emma said, “now that that’s over with, I came because I have a proposition for you.”

 

“It’s not happening,” Ruby said. “I’ve been down that street with you.”

 

“Not  _ that _ kind of proposition, Rubes. I’m putting together a crew.”

 

“For what? You drive a glorified space speeder.”

 

“Not any more. I have a ship now.”

 

“Good for you. Go back to it and get off the planet before I kick you off.”

 

“Come on, Ruby. You can’t still be mad.”

 

“Sure I can. I can be mad for _ages_ if I want.”

 

“Give me a chance to make it up. This could be a really great opportunity for you…”

 

“I’m not looking for an opportunity. I’m doing just fine with Granny.”

 

“Okay, fine, just...give me a chance to lay out what I’m offering…”

 

“Look, Emma…!”

 

Granny’s voice broke in again. “Ruby! Business!”

 

All three women looked toward the entrance. Emma and Regina expected to see someone waiting to be seated, but the only person standing walked directly to the counter. She was a slim Human, with expressive eyes and a wide smile. At the counter she sat right in front of Granny and they began talking.

 

Ruby frowned at the sight, then she pointed to an empty booth and said to the others, “Go sit over there. I’ll deal with you two in a minute.”

 

Emma and Regina complied as Ruby went to join the conversation at the counter. When they were comfortable, Regina said, “So that’s the infamous Ruby. She doesn’t seem like an ordinary waitress…”

 

“She certainly has layers to her personality,” Emma said.

 

“So spill! What is she really? She’s damn sure not a waitress..

 

“Well, not  _ just _ a waitress.”

 

“So?”

 

“So, one of the reasons she’s still mad at me is because I told the wrong person her business. I won’t make that same mistake again. If she wants to tell you, she can.”

 

They went back to watching the conversation at the counter. The slim woman had a hot beverage in front of her as the discussion became more animated. Negotiating? It was the first thing that came to Regina’s mind. They were discussing terms and price. After a little back-and-forth between Granny and the slim woman, the slim woman sighed and nodded. Granny nodded back. A deal.

 

One that Ruby didn’t like. She frowned at the nodding heads, then pulled Granny away to the far end of the counter to have a more intimate - and heated - discussion. When she saw this, the slim woman took one more sip of her drink and left, laying a few credit chips by the cup.

  
__

* * *

  
  
  


“...can’t believe you agreed to that!” Ruby said.

 

“Are you kidding?” Granny said. “With this one job we can clear out of this dump and go legit on a Core World with richer stooges.”

 

_ “If _ she’s good for it!” Ruby said. “So far she’s just a lot of talk with a friendly smile!”

 

Granny smirked. “So you  _ do _ like her smile. Thought so.”

 

“Not. The. Point! We always avoided jobs like this one because of the risk of getting captured, and the size.”

 

“It’s not _too_ big…”

 

“Says the woman that won’t be doing the carting and lifting! And even if I wanted to go along with this stunt, I don’t have the right ship! I’d need…” Her voice stilled completely as some thought seized her mind, then she turned and left the counter.

 

* * *

  
  
  


“She’s coming this way,” Regina said.

 

“I sense opportunity,” Emma said with a wide smile.

 

Ruby came over to the booth and slid in next to Emma. Regina, sitting opposite, bristled slightly at that, but Ruby ignored her. Instead she asked Emma, “What kind of ship do you have?”

 

Emma rested her chin on one hand and smiled right at Ruby. “Tell me why you want to know.”

 

Ruby frowned at her, then glanced at Regina. “Have you told her yet?”

 

Emma became serious. “No. I remembered it wasn’t my place.”

 

“Well, you  _ can  _ be taught,” Ruby said. She turned to Regina. “This place makes enough scratch to pay our bills, mostly, but our real money comes from the off-books work-for-hire stuff that comes in.”

 

“Work-for-hire?” Regina said.

 

“Yep, mainly Granny does the hiring and leaves me to do the work. Anyway, did you see that lady we were talking to?”

 

“What lady?” Emma said.

 

“I know you guys were watching, Emma...anyway, she offered us a job…”

 

“Define ‘us’...”

 

Now Ruby grinned. “That depends: What kind of ship do you have?”

 

Emma regarded Ruby for a moment, as if wondering how far she could trust the other woman. She glanced at Regina, who shrugged. She turned back to Ruby, took a breath, then said, “A Gozanti cruiser.”

 

Ruby blinked. “A what?” She glanced at Regina. “Is she kidding?” Regina shook her head.

 

“In that case, ‘us’ can be me and you and your new ship. I can cut you in for thirty percent of the take.”

 

“Wait,” Regina said, “what’s the job?”

 

“I’ll tell you when we have a deal.”

 

“Then no deal. We’re not going to…”

 

“Forty percent!” Emma cut in.

 

“Emma! What are you doing?”

 

“Deal!” Ruby said, thrusting out her hand.

 

Emma ignored it.  _ “And _ ...you come work with us.”

 

Ruby dropped her hand. “Take the money, Emma. Forty percent of this job is going to be substantial enough.”

 

“But likely not worth as much as having a fighter like you in my crew full time.”

 

“I’m not leaving Granny.”

 

“You just complained about the way she overworks you.”

 

“She’s still my clan…”

 

“You both left your clan back home. You didn’t have a problem then.”

 

“That was different! I won’t just leave Granny.”

 

Emma shrugged. “Fine. She can come too. We have the room.”

 

Regina slapped a palm to her forehead.

 

“Forty- _ five _ percent!” Ruby said. “That’s as high as I can go.”

 

“You can keep the five percent if you come with me.”

 

“I don’t need to join you! I just need to borrow your ship for one job!”

 

“My ship, my terms.”

 

“You’re insane!”

 

“No, I’m a gambler, and I’m gambling on your needs getting me what I want.”

 

Emma smiled at her. Ruby just gritted her teeth and growled, “I’ll be right back.” She got up to have another heated discussion with Granny.

 

“Seriously, Emma?” Regina hissed. “What are you doing? We could just let her charter the ship for half the take!”

 

“Hey,  _ you’re _ the one that keeps harping on how much we need a crew,” Emma shot back, “and since I can’t rely on deep-seated ex-girlfriend love to recruit her, I’m going with good-old-fashioned greed.”

 

“Is that what this is about? Emma, Sno and I are so close because of more than just being exes. You don’t know the whole story!”

 

“And I don’t need to know. All I know is we need some muscle on our crew and Ruby’s perfect.”

 

“Why? I mean, she’s good with a blaster, sure, but…”

 

“She’s not just good with a blaster, Regina. She’s  _ Mandalorian. _ ”

 

“What?”

 

Before Emma could answer, Ruby came back to the booth and plopped down next to Emma again. She had a dejected look on her face. “Fine,” she said with an eyeroll. “Forty percent...and Me. Granny comes for this job and we bring her back here after we divvy up.”

 

Emma held out a hand and smiled. “Deal.” She and Ruby shook on it.

 

“Granny wants to finish out the day,” Ruby said, “then we’ll go with you. You can stay in one of the rooms upstairs until we’re ready, and I can get you something to eat for now.”

 

“Actually,” Regina said, “with more people coming aboard we should really get some more supplies. We’ll come back after we’ve done some shopping.” Ruby nodded, and the look on her face made Regina say, “You don’t look happy about this arrangement.”

 

“It’s just…” Ruby sighed. “You don’t know what it’s like to have someone who’s a second mother to you treat you like a commodity.”

 

Regina looked at her for a second, then smiled. “No, that would be my  _ actual  _ mother.” They shared a mirthless chuckle, then Ruby left the booth, and Regina hit Emma with a pointed stare.

 

Emma put up her hands. “I promise. We’ll make it worth her trouble.”

 

* * *

  
  
  


Sno Whyte was on the bridge of the cruiser snacking on a polystarch roll and some more milk while one of the astro droids repaired the console. She was almost finished her meal when she spotted _ Henry _ arcing toward the ship. She opened a radio channel to the shuttle. “You can dock now, portside aft, You’re welcome, Emma.” She closed the channel before anyone could respond, then got up to head to the portside airlock.

 

When she got there Regina was leading two strangers onto the ship, a young woman with dark hair and a silver haired lady. The young woman was laden with bags and a medium sized trunk.

 

“Hey, Sno,” Regina said. “Thank you for getting the docking port to work.”

 

Sno shrugged. “It’s what I’m here for, right? Fix everything while you go off...hmmm, recruiting I guess?” Regina nodded, so Sno walked up to the young woman and offered a smile. “Hi! I’m Sno Whyte. Emma Swan stole my girlfriend and keeps me prisoner here on this ship some pirate stole from the Empire.”

 

Ruby laughed, then put down one of the bags so she could shake Sno’s hand. “Hi! I’m Ruby Lucas, and Emma Swan dumped me like a bag of dead womp rats after she almost got my Granny arrested because she couldn’t keep her mouth shut.”

 

They both chuckled, then Sno picked up the bag Ruby put down. “I think we’ll get along great. Let me show you where you can settle in.”

 

“That would be awesome!” Ruby said as she walked with Sno down the corridor.

 

Granny followed after giving Regina a little nudge with her elbow and saying, “I like her already.”

 

Regina waited until they all rounded the corner, then went back into the airlock to find Emma unloading crates from  _ Henry. _ Regina sat down on the deck next to the docking hatch to watch. Emma glared at her after shoving a particularly heavy crate onto the deck. “Not gonna help at all?”

 

“You’re doing great,” Regina said with a wicked grin.

 

Emma huffed and pulled herself up onto the deck. “I’m done anyway. So, Ruby and Granny settled in?”

 

“Sno’s setting them up.”

 

“So how’d that meeting go?”

 

“Let’s just say you have a unique ability to bring people together.”

 

“Glad to hear. So now all we need is for Rubes to tell us where we’re going.”

 

“I still wish you would have made her tell us what the job is before we did all this. What if this is some suicide mission?”

 

“Ruby’s a survivor, babe. She wouldn’t go on a suicide mission, not even for Granny.”

 

“You’re assuming Granny would tell her it’s suicide. She’s a commodity, remember?”

 

“Regina, don’t worry. It’s our ship. If we don’t like what we hear when they tell us we can call the whole thing off and take them back to Harloff Minor.” She kissed Regina’s cheek and clasped her hand. “Let’s just hear them out. I’m sure there are worse things we could be dealing with right now.”

 

* * *

  
  
  


Fiona Blak, Queen of Ord Mantell’s illicit prostitution and gambling rings, paced around her office as a life-sized hologram of Ingrid Arend’L concluded her report. “...your hunch was right. They must have come here and picked up the mechanic. We’re definitely on their trail. The bad news is, so is the Empire.”

 

Fiona stopped pacing. “The Empire?”

 

“They beat us here. A squad of troopers landed here a short time ago and began a systematic search of the planet. They’ve been asking about a Gozanti freighter.”

 

“Just the ship? They don’t know about Swan and Regina Mihls?”

 

“Doesn’t seem like it. Their main interest is recovering the ship. Presumably they’ll deal with whoever’s flying it once they have it.”

 

“That’s no good. If they get arrested or blown out of the sky I’ll never have my revenge.” She started pacing again, lost in thought.

 

Ingrid waited a while, watching her pace, then asked calmly, “Would you like us to shadow the Imperials?”

 

Fiona stopped and turned to her. “No. Get back here as soon as you can. With the Empire as competition we need to recruit allies.”

 

“On our way.” Ingrid reached out of frame and closed the connection.

 

Fiona went over to her desk and used the controls to open a new channel. A minute later a large male Twi’lek in body armor showed up in the hologram.

 

Fiona stepped up to it and said, “I am Fiona Blak from Ord Mantell and I need to speak to your boss.”

 

The Twi’lek held up a finger and stepped out of the projection. Fiona stood by and waited patiently. A few minutes later, a tall, beautiful older woman stepped into the projection. She was Human, with piercing eyes. She was dressed more for attending an opera than doing illegal business, but that fashion sense was part of her reputation.

 

The woman’s eyes locked onto Fiona’s frame and scanned down and up slowly. Fiona simply smiled and let her.  _ Use whatever you’ve got to close a deal,  _ her mentor always told her.

 

Finally the woman locked eyes with Fiona and said, “Well, Fiona Blak from Ord Mantell, how can I help you?”

 

“I’m calling on a matter of mutual interest,” Fiona said. “There’s a problem we share that we may miss our chance to solve to our benefit.”

 

Cora Mihls nodded and crossed her arms. “What has my daughter done now?”


	4. Corporate Secret

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you're still with me, and I hope this next installment is worth the wait.

The Gozanti cruiser had a small conference room with a holo-table in the center. After Regina got the ship into hyperspace, everyone gathered there so that Ruby’s Granny could explain what they were doing. She started by using the holo-table to display a man with gray hair and a hard look in his eyes. He was wearing a civilian business suit. “This man is Rumple Stiltskin,’ she said, “a very big man in Imperial circles. Not only is he the governor of this region of the galaxy, but he’s also an industrialist, whose company is a major subcontractor on nearly all the Imperial ships built by Kuat Yards. We’re heading to one of his research and development facilities. It’s on one of the moons in the Prata System. That facility is where the job is.”

 

“And what exactly is the job?” Regina asked. “Are we killing or stealing?”

 

“The second if all goes well, the first only if necessary.” Granny changed the holo from Stiltskin to the facility itself. “Word has it that Governor Stiltskin is thinking about his future, looking for a way to stay rich and powerful no matter who wins the current conflict. That means that even though he’s outwardly loyal to the Empire, he’s secretly making sure he can get in good with a New Republic or whatever body takes over once the Empire’s overthrown. To that end, he’s kept this place hidden and working in secret on projects that can be marketed to any future galactic power.

 

“Recently, the research efforts paid off. The scientists there have developed a fuel additive that’s universally effective. Mix it with the fuel of any space ship, no matter who made it, and that ship’s fuel efficiency and performance will increase tenfold.”

 

“And he’s keeping that a secret from the Empire?” Emma said. “Ballsy.”

 

“Ballsy, and lucky for us, because we can expect that the facility won’t have nearly the level of security around a similar Imperial one. We can exploit that. Our client wants us to steal the formula for the fuel additive and as much of any stockpile of the finished product that we can carry. If we pull it off, we collect the princely sum of a hundred million.”

 

Emma, Regina and Sno were hard pressed to find their voices for a long time. The mechanic recovered first. “Did...you just say...a  _ hundred _ million?”

 

“I did,” Granny said, deadpan.

 

“Well who’s the client?” Regina asked.

 

“Someone with deep pockets and deeper secrets,” Ruby said.

 

“That woman in the restaurant, right? How well do you know her?”

 

“We’ve done a couple of jobs for her, and she’s come through with payment, but we’ve never done anything this big and she’s never offered that much.”

 

“Well, that’s the thing, isn’t it? Even if it’s not an Imperial base I doubt anything that important to a man like Stiltskin will be lightly protected. We could be flying into a death trap for a dubious payday.”

 

“Do we know anything about the place’s security?” Sno asked.

 

Granny waved off the concern. “Ah, you’re all young, smart girls. You can get in no matter what’s there.”

 

“The trick is getting out again with the goods and our  _ skins _ , Granny,” Ruby reminded her elder, then she sighed and addressed the others. “ _ But _ ...thanks to this ship I think I have an idea…”

  
  


* * *

  
  


On the desert moon of Jarix in the Prata system, the director of the research facility there was on a meal break in his office. As he ate he thanked his lucky stars for helping him land such an easy job. All he had to do was keep the big brains happy while they worked on whatever they were working on and he collected a very nice salary. It was an ideal situation for him, and he could think of only one thing that might ruin it for him.

 

As he sipped a cold drink a shrill beeping sounded from his desk, followed by a frantic voice announcing: “Director! An Imperial ship just demanded landing clearance!”

 

_ And that would be the one thing! _ He thought as he spit out his drink, then he keyed his radio switch. “That’s impossible, Horst!” He said. “The Imperials don’t know we’re here!”

 

“Apparently no one told them that!” Horst shot back.

 

The director’s mind started racing. “They didn’t send a star destroyer or something like that, did they?”

 

“No, no...it’s one of their patrol cruisers.”

 

That was both good and bad. At least the Empire didn’t think dealing with the facility required a capital ship because they weren’t seen as much of a threat. The bad news is they _ weren’t _ much of a threat. Most of their security resources were arrayed to protect one part of the facility, and its greatest protection was not being on the Imperials’ scanners.

 

So much for that. If the Imperials were here for any kind of thorough inspection, they were screwed. He’d have to try and bluff them off the moon. “Did you give them the clearance?”

 

“Of course I did!” Horst said.

 

“Then calm down and meet me at the landing bay!” The director said.

  
  


* * *

  
  


A few minutes later the director and his assistant Horst were standing by the landing pad as a Gozanti cruiser descended into the bay. The first things the men noticed were that the ship was devoid of Imperial markings and the hull had a beaten appearance, as if the ship were in disguise. A trick to capture pirates perhaps? Neither would dare ask.

 

More minutes passed before the boarding ramp descended and gave the men their next surprise. No stormtroopers disembarked. Only two Imperial officers, both female and brunette, one a few inches shorter than the other. They were accompanied by a single R2 unit.

 

The director put that out of his mind as he put on his most charming smile and extended his hand to the two women. “Ladies, welcome to our humble research lab. I’m Jonas Killian, the director.”

 

Both officers ignored the hand, and the taller one said, “This isn’t a social call, Mister Killian. We’re here to get answers.”

 

“Starting with,” the other said, “what is an unlicensed and unregistered civilian facility doing in a restricted system?”

 

“Restricted? You must be mistaken. This system was available for homesteading and development when we first set up shop…”

 

“Your information is out of date,” the taller one said, with a hint of contempt. “This system was designated an Imperial Reserve a year ago...something you _ might _ have known if you’d declared your presence here properly.”

 

“Which makes us wonder why you _ didn’t _ declare yourselves,” Shorty said.

 

_ Uh-Oh! _ Killian thought, but he maintained his smile as he said, “Well, ladies, surely you understand bureaucratic misadventures. I’m certain the proper forms were filled out and transmitted with all due haste, but of course anything can happen…”

 

The shorter one smiled right back. “Oh certainly...that’s why we’re going to go to your records room and our droid is going to sift through every single unit of data until we find out exactly what went wrong.”

 

“And of course you want us to figure out what happened,” Tall said, “so a mishap like that will never happen again, yes?”

  
  


* * *

  
  


“I hope they’re doing okay,” Emma muttered. She was flying _ Henry  _ in a low orbit around Jarix. Ruby was sitting beside her.

 

“They’re going to do fine,” Ruby said, staying positive.

 

“You do realize we’ll only know for sure if they succeed,” Emma said. “There’s no way to know if they get found out.”

 

“The droid with them will know, and pass the information on to the others.”

 

Emma turned to look back into the little shuttle’s cargo area to find one of the R2 units sittting still and waiting patiently. “I still say I should have gone in with Regina.”

 

“It’s not Sno’s fault that the only two Impy uniforms we found in the ship fit Regina and her best.”

 

“We could have altered the other one.”

 

“Yes, if we wanted to waste time making major alterations to a military uniform. Get over yourself, Emma.”

 

Emma huffed and made a big show of turning back to monitor the controls.  _ I’m sure Sno planned that somehow,  _ she thought.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Regina and Sno followed Killian with a stiff, officious gait, trying to use body language to convey the threat of follow-on Imperial forces even though they both knew no such thing was forthcoming. Their goal was to keep the director off-balance and distracted while R2-G7 got into the facility’s records and hunted for the mysterious fuel additive formula and any storehouse where samples might be kept.

 

After walking for a few minutes Killian led them to a standard data core control room. The facility’s core was set behind a wall of plastisteel and the control room was small, with only a mid-sized control panel for access. Sno indicated the panel and said, “Droid, get to work.”

 

G7 rolled over to the control panel with a few beeps and inserted his data spike into a port. Now he had two jobs to do. One was to actually conduct a detailed review of the facility’s records. The other was to sift through the public stuff to find anything secret. If he found anything he would transmit it to G8 in  _ Henry _ with Emma and Ruby.

 

While they waited for the droid to do its work, Regina paced around the core control room, making a show of inspecting every little inch. “Exactly how long have you been in this undisclosed location?” She asked Killian.

 

The director tried to turn on the charm again. “Oh, not long at all. We’re just basically set up!”

 

“Wow!Badabadabadabadabeep!” G7 said.

 

“Seven standard years, four months., twenty-two days,” Sno translated.

 

“Has it been  _ that _ long?” Killian tried, with a smile for Sno and an angry glare for the droid.

 

“Well,” Regina said, “in that case I believe we’ll be here for quite a while.”

 

Killian forced himself not to wince. “O-Of course, it will be a delight to spend time in such charming company.” He smiled awkwardly, and Regina and Sno smiled knowingly, which just frightened Killian even more.

 

Fortunately the awkward moment didn’t last too long. “Bingaringaringa _ reeeng _ bahbahbahp!” G7 sang out. Sno didn’t translate this time. She simply nodded at Regina.

 

Regina nodded back and said, “Well, why don’t we leave the droid to its work and continue our inspection in the research spaces?”

 

Killian gulped. He knew which of the research labs were just for show, but it had been an age since the workers there had had to fool anybody. What if these Imperials saw through the disguise? “Certainly...let me just give the researchers a heads-up…”

 

“That won’t be necessary,” Regina said as she headed fo the door. “A surprise inspection is always best. Wouldn’t you agee, Lieutenant?”

 

“Indeed I would, Commander,” Sno said as she followed Regina.

 

Killian cursed and said a silent prayer as he fell in step with the women.

  
  


* * *

  
  


“ _ Bweeooo _ brahbahp!” G8 sounded off as he rolled to  _ Henry _ ’s control panel. The droid extended a spike into the appropriate port and began to relay the information it had just received from G7. Emma and Ruby examined the data carefully as schematics of the facility showed on the displays.

 

“There,” Ruby said, pointing to a building in the southwest corner of the layout. It was flashing red.

 

“It’s labled ‘Auxiliary Power Station 2.’” Emma said “A fake?”

 

“Gotta be. The droids are saying that’s where the additive and the fuel lab are, and...” She checked the sensors. “...it’s not generating power. It’s drawing power from the other auxiliary station.”

 

“How do we get in?” Emma wondered, then she noticed: “Wait...looks like there’s a landing bay attached.”

 

“The story would be that it gives easy access to maintenance teams,” Ruby said.

 

“But they’d have  _ easier  _ access from inside the facility,” Emma said. She smiled. “Oopsie.”

 

“Yep, somebody was trying to be clever and took it too far. They probably thought it wouldn’t matter because nobody knew this place existed.”

 

“We still need the clearance codes to get in.”

 

“G8, see if G7 can find the clearance codes for this landing bay.”

 

G8 beeped and complied, and soon was transmitting the necessary codes to open the bay. Ruby and Emma watched as the bay opened, then Emma flew down and landed. G8 shut the bay when _ Henry _ ’s engines were shut down.

 

Emma stood up from the pilot’s seat and strapped on her blaster. “Ready to go?”

 

“Go ahead,” Ruby said, “I’m gonna get changed.”

 

Emma smiled. “I could stay and wait for you.”

 

“I don’t think so,” Ruby said. “Out!”

 

Emma shrugged and said “Come on G8,” as she opened the speeder’s rear hatch. She and the droid entered the bay. Emma took note of how big it was as they traveled across it. They stopped at a door with a control panel set to one side of the bay.

 

“Can you get us in here?” Emma asked.

 

G8 beeped and extended his spike again. Emma watched as the little droid went to work.

 

Ruby came up behind them about a minute later, drawing Emma’s gaze. Now Ruby was wearing a reinforced body suit under her Mandalorian body armor. She also had strapped on two blasters, a trick gauntlet and a missile-armed rocket backpack. All she needed to complete the look was the dome-like combat helmet, which she was holding under one arm.

 

“How’s it going?” Ruby asked.

 

“Still working on it,” Emma said.

 

It didn’t take that long. Moments later G8 was beeping with glee as the blast door opened, then the three of them went through.

 

“Holy…” was all Emma could say.

 

Of course, there was no power plant. What they found instead was a storage bay twice the width and height of the landing bay. And it was full, stacked high and wide with barrels containing what the warning labels called volatile substances.

 

“Jackpot!” Ruby said. “It’s the additive. It’s gotta be.”

 

“I didn’t expect so much,” Emma said. “They must be working overtime to mass produce it.”

 

Ruby looked around and found a control panel with a data port. She pointed to it and told G8, “Go see if you can download the formula.” The little droid rolled off to comply. Ruby turned to Emma. “You think one of these will fit in the back of _ Henry _ ?”

 

Emma balked. “One? Just one?”

 

“Yeah. You think we can fit two?”

 

“Rubes, we need to grab a bunch of these!”

 

“No, we don’t. If G8 can get the formula for the additive then all we need is a sample. One container will be plenty.”

 

“Didn’t your mysterious benefactor ask for all the additive we can carry? We could literally carry a shipload of this stuff if we just flew the Gozanti into that bay and filled its holds!”

 

“We don’t have the time. We have no idea how long Regina and Sno can distract the facility’s personnel. We just need to grab one container and get the formula. That’s enough for our payday.”

 

“I like being sure... _ and _ I like having the ability to negotiate a higher price. If one container gets us a hundred mill, think about what two dozen might get us!”

 

“Possibly  _ killed  _ if we take too long to load them! This is no time to get greedy!”

 

“This is the perfect time to get greedy! It was your idea to bring the ship in the first place! Let’s use it!”

 

“The ship has already done its job! We need to think about getting away, Emma!”

 

The two women stared each other down for a few moments...then Emma thought  _ To hell with it! _ and ran back to the landing bay. “My ship, my call!”

 

“Emma!!” Ruby yelled.

 

“I’ll be back in a few minutes! Just keep the droid working and start loading containers on a palette!”

 

Ruby groaned and put on her helmet as she trotted over to the panel to find the controls for the bay’s cargo handling equipment.

 

Meanwhile, Emma rushed to get into  _ Henry  _ and took out the code cylinder for the Gozanti…

  
  


* * *

  
  


_ What the hell’s going on? _ Regina thought as she listened to yet another flunkie drone on about what he was researching at the facility. It was blindingly obvious that he was there to provide credibility, not to do actual work. Of course she didn’t call him on it, given she was running a scam of her own, but G7 had already caught up to her and Sno and reported that the droids had found what they were looking for. Ruby and Emma should have grabbed it and sent the “all-clear” back through G8 long ago. So what happened?

 

When the drone was done talking, Killian put that fake smile back on and said, “Well, ladies, shall we move on to the next lab?”

 

Regina wanted to say no, but put on a fake smile of her own and said, “Of course. We must be thorough, mustn’t we?”

 

Killian ushered Regina, Sno and G7 out of this lab and down the corridor. It would take a few minutes to reach the next lab, and Killian tried to fill the travel time with more obsequious nonsense, but he didn’t get much out before his assistant Horst came running up behind them trying to get Killian’s attention. Regina was initially glad for the interruption.

 

Then she found out Horst wanted to tell her something. “Forgive me, Commander, but I was wondering if you realized your ship has taken off?”

 

In later days, Regina would regret not acting as if she was aware of the ship’s movements. Instead she said, “Taken off? Headed where?”

 

Horst looked hesitant to say. “Well...it appears that it is headed toward our number 2 auxiliary power station…”

 

Killian’s eyes bugged out at that. Surprisingly, so did Sno’s. “Um, Commander…”

 

Regina cursed silently as she drew her blaster and stunned Killian and Horst on the spot, then she pulled out a commlink. “Granny, do you read? Are you taking the ship?”

 

“Hell no!” Granny’s voice came back. “I was just about to ask you what’s going on?”

 

Regina was about to respond when she saw that one of the researchers in the lab they were just in had come out. “Um, we heard a shot…” he said, just before he turned and ran back to the lab, diving through the door before Regina could properly line up a shot. She and Sno pursued him but found the lab door closed and locked.

 

“Now what do we do?” Sno asked.

 

Just then a loud alarm klaxon sounded through the corridor.

 

“Now we fight our way to the power station!” Regina said.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Emma was busy trying to get the Gozanti into the power station landing bay when the alarms sounded. She ended up rushing the job, almost damaging  _ Henry _ in the process. When the cruiser’s engines had shut down Emma exited the speeder and ran back into the storage bay. “I got it here!” She said to Ruby. “What’s…”

 

Her voice trailed off. Ruby wasn’t looking at her, and when she turned the same way she understood why. At some point after the alarms went off four KX-series security droids emerged from recesses in the walls. They were tall, black and menacing...and had set their sights set firmly on the humans in the room.

 

Emma cursed and drew her blaster, but Ruby slapped her arm down before she could fire. “Are you crazy?? You want to start a firefight in a bay full of fuel??”

 

Emma glared at Ruby. “They’re KX droids, Ruby! What am I supposed to fight ‘em with? Harsh language?”

 

“ _ I’ll _ take care of the droids!” Ruby said. “You want a bunch of fuel? You have until I’m done to get as much of it loaded as you can!” Ruby pointed at an anti-grav palette that she’d managed to get three barrells onto before the KX’s showed up. Emma headed toward the controls Ruby was using and got to work.

 

When Emma was clear, Ruby activated her rocket backpack and took off, getting elevation on the KX droids as she pressed a control on her trick gauntlet. It fired a heavy wire garotte at the lead droid’s neck and looped tight around it. Ruby yanked hard as she throttled the rocket. The lift and the strain pulled the droid’s head from its body, which fell to the floor. One down.

 

Ruby positioned herself over the trailing droid and throttled down, letting gravity take hold. As she fell she hooked her arm around this droid’s head and made him fall back to the floor. When they were both on the deck she extended a vibro-blade from her gauntlet and used it to decapitate this KX. Two down.

 

Now Ruby was behind the other droids. Before they could turn fully to deal with her she lunged at the one on the right and used the blade to sever the hydro-servos in its legs. When it fell she stabbed the blade through the control servos in its lower back, rendering it inert. Three down.

 

Ruby finally drew one of her blasters as she squared off with the last KX droid. She moved to put herself between the droid and the fuel, and when she was sure she would be firing away from the barrells she took aim and put two bolts through droid’s neck. Its control systems shorted and sparked as the automaton fell.

 

With the last droid down, Ruby turned to Emma and called out, “Ya done yet?”

 

Emma was looking at her friend wide-eyed. “Geez, Rubes!” She said. “Couldn’t you at least  _ pretend _ that required some effort?”

 

Ruby ignored the comment and counted the barrells on the palette. Emma had managed to load three more on to it. “We have enough! Get the palette into the ship!”

 

“But, Ruby…!”

 

“There _ will _ be reinforcements, Emma! We can’t stay here all day, so just get the frinxing palette into the ship  _ now!! _ ”

 

“All right, all right…” Emma muttered as she complied.

 

Just then G8 let out a flurry of beeps and whistles. The droid almost sounded happy as it unplugged from the data port and rolled over to Ruby.

 

“I hope that means you found what we need, little buddy,” Ruby said. “Go get in the ship.”

 

Moments later, Emma, Ruby and G8 were on the Gozanti’s bridge. Emma launched the cruiser and remote-piloted  _ Henry _ back into his docking port. When they were airborne, Emma got on the commlink to Regina. “Regina, do you read? It’s Emma. We’re bringing the ship back!”

 

“Well, that’s wonderful!” Regina screamed back. “Why the hell did you move it in the first place??”

 

_ Uh-oh…  _ Emma thought. Bad enough her queen didn’t sound the least bit pleased, but there was the sound of blaster fire in the background. “That’s kind of a long story…”

  
  


* * *

  
  


“I’m too busy for long stories right now!” Regina yelled back. She and Sno hadn’t gotten very far before KX droids literally came out of the walls. And these units were armed. The women had managed to take cover around a bend in the corridor they were in, but the droids had them pinned down, keeping up a volume of fire so intense they couldn’t return fire effectively.

 

Now Ruby’s voice came on. “Can you get back to the main landing bay?”

 

Regina and Sno looked at each other. Sno shrugged. “We gotta have better luck going  _ back _ than _ forward! _ ”

 

Regina nodded and said to Ruby, “We’ll try our best!”

 

“Stick close to G7!” Ruby said. “I’ll come and support you by tracking him!”

 

“Acknowledged!”

 

“Lead the way, Seven!” Sno said. The droid beeped and headed back the way Jonas Killian had brought them. Regina and Sno traveled behind him at a run, trying to stay ahead of the security droids as they pursued and kept up their volume of fire. 

 

They were halfway back to the landing bay when Ruby flew above their heads toward the KX’s. “Keep going!” She called out. Regina, Sno and G7 picked up the pace as best they could. Ruby didn’t waste time finessing the oncoming droids. She just fired her backpack missile and blew up the corridor in front of them.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Everyone was back aboard the Gozanti minutes later and the cruiser was taking off soon after that. Emma picked a destination at random and wasted no time getting into hyperspace. After that she was joined on the bridge by the other women and the two R2 units that took part in the operation.

 

Emma was especially glad to see Regina. She approached with a smile on her face, intending to pull Regina in for a kiss. “Hey, babe,” she said. “I know you’re probably mad, but…”

 

Instead of a kiss, Regina gave Emma a hard, forceful slap across her face. The noise of the impact echoed in the relatively quiet bridge. Afterward, Emma felt her cheek and stared in utter shock at Regina. Regina was glaring at her.

 

After a minute, Regina turned to Granny Lucas and said softly. “I need some time to rest. Please give me an hour or two before you contact our client.”

 

“Of course,” Granny said.

 

Regina spared one last hostile glance for Emma before turning and leaving the bridge. Granny followed a moment later. Ruby stayed long enough to flash Emma an  _ I told you so _ look before departing as well.

 

Sno grinned, and with barely masked glee she said, “Looks like  _ somebody’s _ sleeping in guest quarters tonight... _ Captain. _ ” Then she snickered as she left the bridge.

 

That left only the R2 units to keep Emma company. “Woowooooo…” G7 said sadly.

 

_ “Brrbrrt!”  _ G8 added.

 

“My thoughts exactly…” Emma sighed, then she sat in the pilot’s seat and just stared out the viewport at the hyperspace outside…

  
  


* * *

  
  


About an hour after the Gozanti’s departure, a  _ Lambda _ -class shuttle with civilian markings landed at the research facility. Jonas Killian and his assistant Horst were there to greet the occupants.

 

Rumple Stiltskin was the first down the boarding ramp. He was followed by a small entourage of assistants and armored mercenaries who served as his bodyguards. As soon as his feet touched the deck he got right in Killian’s face. “What the hell happened?” He growled.

 

Killian explained everything he knew, up to the point when he’d been stunned by the ersatz Imperial officer and what he learned after waking up. “They got away with nearly 200 liters of the additive, plus we’re sure their R2 units managed to aquire the formula.”

 

“And you just let them land and have the run of the place…” Stiltskin said.

 

“We thought they were Imperial officers!” Killian shot back.

 

“I’m the Imperial Governor of this region, you moron!” Stiltskin said. “If the Empire had actually sent forces to this sector I would have known about it before  _ you _ did!”

 

“All right! Fine! I screwed up! So what do you want done about it?”

 

Stilskin took a calming breath, then said in a more even tone, “There are two transports about an hour behind me. When they arrive we will load the additive in one and the personnel in the other. While we’re waiting we’ll secure the formula and wipe the rest of the data banks. When we leave we’ll destroy this facility.”

 

“What about getting that 200 liters back?”

 

“No need. With the formula in hand we can easily replace it.”

 

“But they have the formula as well. Who knows who they’ll sell it to.”

 

“You’re right, which is why our real priority is locating that Gozanti cruiser and destroying it before it can deliver its stolen goods.”

 

“And how would we do that?”

 

“Simple. We’ll let the Imperial Navy do it for us.”

 

Killian scoffed. “ _ That’s _ ‘simple’?”

 

“We have two women flying around in an Imperial patrol vessel pretending to be Imperial Officers. That’s an automatic death sentence for them, and if the patrol vessel itself is stolen, that just sweetens the pot. We’ll sweeten it further. We’ll say they used their masquerade to threaten our people and ultimately destroy this facility. We just need to provide descriptions of the ship and its occupants and sit back.”

 

“But that could take ages! I can’t see two con artists and one stolen cruiser being a priority for the Empire. It might take months for them to send someone to investigate.”

 

Stiltskin held up a finger. “Unless, this cruiser has already been reported stolen, and someone is already looking for it. Let’s find out, shall we?”


End file.
